Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Dahlia hybrida cultivar Gallery Bellini.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Dahlia plant, botanically known as Dahlia hybrida and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Gallery Bellinixe2x80x99.
The new Dahlia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Lisse, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new potted Dahlia cultivars with compact plant habit, freely branching growth habit, early and freely flowering habit, decorative inflorescence form, attractive ray floret coloration, and good postproduction longevity and garden performance.
The new Dahlia is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of the Dahlia hybrida cultivar Gallery Pablo, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,599. The new Dahlia was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within a population of plants of the cultivar Gallery Pablo in a controlled environment in Lisse, The Netherlands, in the summer of 1999. The selection of this plant was based on its unique ray floret coloration.
Asexual reproduction of the new Dahlia by cuttings was first conducted in Lisse, The Netherlands in February, 2000. Asexual reproduction by cuttings has shown that the unique features of this new Dahlia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The cultivar Gallery Bellini has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature and light intensity without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Gallery Bellinixe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Gallery Bellinixe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Dahlia cultivar:
1. Compact and rounded plant habit.
2. Freely branching growth habit.
3. Early and freely flowering habit.
4. Decorative inflorescence form.
5. Large inflorescences with red purple-colored ray florets.
6. Good postproduction longevity and garden performance.
Plants of the new Dahlia differ primarily from plants of the parent, the cultivar Gallery Pablo, primarily in ray floret color as plants of the cultivar Gallery Pablo have salmon orange-colored ray florets.
Plants of the new Dahlia can be compared to plants of the cultivar Vanessa, not patented. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Lisse, The Netherlands, plants of the new Dahlia were more compact and were more freely flowering than plants of the cultivar Vanessa. In addition, plants of the new Dahlia and the cultivar Vanessa differed slightly in ray floret coloration.